More Green Homes for the UK

British Gas and Mears announce partnership to deliver energy management for social housing.

British Gas, the UK’s largest supplier of low carbon, energy efficient products and services and Mears, a leading provider of repairs and maintenance services to the social housing sector, announce a strategic partnership to bid on repair and maintenance contracts in the social housing sector.

From today, Mears and British Gas will jointly bid on repair and maintenance contracts in the social housing sector, with British Gas delivering energy services as well as providing access to Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT), Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP), Feed-In Tariff and Renewable Heat Incentive funding, to subsidise energy efficiency measures and renewable and low carbon technology.

As a result, British Gas and Mears will be able to target CERT and CESP funding opportunities within Mears’ existing and growing Social Housing client base, enabling Social Housing Landlords to leverage more value from their capital budgets.

The Partnership will also offer a wide range of microgeneration installation and maintenance services across the 500,000 Social Homes Mears currently works with. These include whole house solutions which may include air and ground source heat pumps and biomass boilers as well as solar panels.

By combining the capability and resources of these two industry-leading organisations, the partnership will create efficiency opportunities for Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords during a time of budget constraint.

We believe that tenants should benefit from lower energy bills, warmer homes and better service as a result of improved co-ordination by combining existing maintenance services and energy management. Tenants will also receive direct advice and help from Mears staff to ensure that the value of these investments is maximised within the home.

Phil Bentley, Managing Director of British Gas said: “The growing importance of a ‘whole house’ approach to energy management underpins the rationale for this partnership and we are delighted to be working with Mears. It is particularly welcome given that housing budgets are likely to come under pressure over coming months, and will also contribute to meeting Britain’s stretching carbon reduction targets. By co-ordinating British Gas’ and Mears’ expertise and experience, we are confident we will improve the quality of social housing throughout the UK at the lowest possible cost.”

Bob Holt, Chairman of Mears, said: “I am delighted to announce our partnership with British Gas. This is the first partnership of its kind in the UK, demonstrating Mears' targeted and innovative approach to leadership within the Social Housing space.

“Our close working relationship with British Gas will strengthen our existing relationships with our key customers, as they seek to find cost effective methods of ensuring environmental compliance.

“We believe that this partnership demonstrates our ongoing commitment, clearly stated in our strategy "to constantly search for new and better ways to support clients and help tenants" and our "Getting Greener" Campaign.

“We will work with British Gas to ensure that the Social Housing Sector generates significant savings and continues to create opportunities for the future.”

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Notes to editors:

British Gas and Mears have signed a Memorandum of Understanding/Partnership Agreement which sets out that the businesses will work together in the social housing market.

For the benefit of Mears’ clients, British Gas will leverage funding streams such as CERT (carbon emissions reduction target) and CESP (community energy savings programme) programmes, and elements of the Clean Energy Cashback will replace the Low Carbon Buildings Programme (Feed in Tariffs, Renewable Heat Incentive). British Gas is the largest provider of CERT and CESP funding in the UK.

About British Gas

British Gas is the largest installer of boilers in the UK, installing around 120,000 each year. British Gas also services four million boilers each year and has a unique understanding of the state of the nation's boilers. British Gas has more than 7,000 Gas Safe (formerly CORGI registered) engineers who install and maintain boilers, central heating systems - as well as new technologies, such as solar panels and ground source heat pumps. There are more than four million inefficient boilers in use at present time in Britain. Installing energy-efficient boilers can help customers improve their energy efficiency by up to 30%.

British Gas, the biggest energy supplier in the country and part of the Centrica group of companies, has the lowest carbon intensity of any of the major UK energy suppliers in terms of tonnes of CO2 emitted per megawatt hour of electricity supplied to customers. For more information go to: http://www.britishgas.co.uk/

£1 in every £4 spent on heating in Britain is wasted due to poor insulation. Loft insulation can save £150 on the average annual fuel bill, and cavity insulation can save £115. Last year, British Gas completed around 270,000 cavity wall and loft insulations.

In 2009, the total monetary savings on energy bills made by British Gas customers as a result of insulation totalled £30 million. With a quarter of CO2 emissions in the UK coming from homes, demand for energy efficiency products and services is rising rapidly.

About Mears

MearsGroup plc is one of the leading social housing providers of repairs and maintenance to Local Authorities and Registered Social Housing Landlords in the UK and has a leading position in the UK Local Authorities’ outsourced domiciliary care market, providing personal care services to people in their own homes.

Mears employs in excess of 11,000 people and provides maintenance and repairs services to social housing sector, with more than 500,000 homes nationwide. Mears also provides over 150,000 hours of domiciliary care to 20,000 service users each week.

The first 13,000 homes to benefit from the partnership have already been identified, and will receive an energy efficiency pack of a standby saver and electricity monitor worth £43, allowing residents to save up to £43 a year off their energy bills, and cutting up to 19,695 tonnes of carbon.